Thursday, May 29, 2008

[js]Chicken tinola is one of my all-time favourite dishes. It is one of the dishes that I remember asking our Yaya to make me every once so often during childhood.

It is an extremely simple dish to make. In true minimalist fashion, there are only five ingredients I need to make chicken tinola: chicken, green papaya, chili pepper leaves, ginger, and fish sauce.

Sometimes we can even get away with having no green papaya. The ingredient that makes chicken tinola a chicken tinola is the chili pepper leaves (dahon ng sili).

The picture below has garlic together with the ginger. I usually like just ginger, lots and lots of ginger. I can dispense with the garlic.

Sauté the ginger pieces in a little bit of oil until fragrant. Put the chicken pieces in and sauté. Browning the chicken pieces adds a lot of flavour, but can be skipped if pressed for time or lacking industry.

Here, we just cut up a whole chicken into smaller parts.

I must say that my favourite has to be chicken tinola made with chicken wings though. I find myself not caring much for the meat and prefer picking out the meat from between the bones of the wing. It's that part that makes the whole chicken tinola experience for me. Chicken wing tinola makes for a much more flavourful result, probably because of the fat content in chicken wings.

Add the green papaya pieces, add water, and then season the broth with a little bit of fish sauce and the whole dish is one step close to being done.

Add the chili pepper leaves at the end.

The chili pepper leaves have that distinct greengrassyherby aroma that is the smell of tinola. I'm sure some people would say substitute with spinach or water spinach but it's really not the same.

Without the chili pepper leaves, it's not chicken tinola, merely another chicken soup.

I made a little condiment for the chicken tinola, following this tip from Connie at pinoycook.

Yes!! I found some in T&T Richmond. They also have green papayas. I also bought chicken wings and chicken bones. I roasted the chicken bones first then boiled it to make chicken broth for the chicken wings tinola. Thanks again for the post.

Howdy! Thank you so much for checking out our blog! I'm now poking around yours and only got thru the latest post and i'm already hooked!!! CHICKEN LIVERS MASHED UP IN SOUP!!?? Are you freaking kidding me? This looks so delicious and will be bookmarked for when colder weather returns. I also love that you really schooled me on the authenticity of this dish.

I got the stuff to make this tonight. Well, almost. I have no idea what kind of leaves I got-- they're a bit minty, actually. I wish I had read more in depth before I went to the store, because if I saw the comment about them in the clear plastic bags, I could've grabbed them! Anyhow, I have everything else so I'll see how dinner tonight goes... :)